Vil·la Joana

Vil·la Joana is an old masia located in Vallvidrera (Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district, Barcelona) in the middle of Collserola Natural Park.[1] It is one floor building with a lookout tower and lateral galleries. One of its most distinctive element is the clock of the main façade.[2]

Nowadays, Vil·la Joana is a museum managed by Barcelona City History Museum. In 2014 started a project to transform the building into Verdaguer’s House of Literature.[3]

History

Vil·la Joana was one of the most important masies of Vallvidrera.[4] Documented since the 16th century, it was owned by Miralles’s family in the 19th century, who gave it the name of Vil·la Joana. In 1902, Jacint Verdaguer came into the house because of its tuberculosis. He died in that hose the June 10 of that year.

Later, in 1920, Vil·la Joana became a “Vilajoana’s School”, a special school. It had some prestigious professionals (psychiatrists, phoneticians, etc.) as Dr. Jesús María Bellido, Joan Alzina i Melis, Pere Barnils i Giol or Joan Llongeres.[5]

The school for deaf and dumb people closed in 1925 and the blind people’s school in 1954, so Vil·la Joana became a centre specialized in mentally deficient people’s education.

Finally, in 1962 Barcelona’s City Council decided to transform Vil·la Joana into a museum about Jacint Verdaguer as a centre linked with Barcelona City History Museum. In 1973, Vil·la Joana Foundation was moved into a new building, more appropriated for its needs.[6][7]

In 2014 it started the transformation of the centre in order to adapt it as a writer’s house, for temporary stays.

 

References

  1. ↑ http://www.parcnaturalcollserola.cat/pages/masies
  2. ↑ Cercador del Patrimoni Arquitectònic
  3. ↑ «Vil·la Joana de Barcelona es convertirà en casa Verdaguer de literatura». Diari Ara, 12/8/2014, page. 4 (Ara Estiu).
  4. ↑ Masies de Barcelona. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona; Angle Editorial, 2009. ISBN 978-84-9850-196-4.
  5. ↑ MASANÉS, Cristina. Ajuntament de Barcelona, Institut d'Educació. Vil·la Joana : 90 anys d'educació especial, 2011. ISBN 978-84-9850-371-5.
  6. ↑ «Inauguración de la nueva escuela municipal "Vilajoana"». La Vanguardia, May 6, 1973.
  7. ↑ http://www.bcn.cat/vilajoana/frames/tretsup.htm
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